Built in Africa focuses on entrepreneurs, startups and technologies that hail from the continent and empower its citizens.
The miracle of birth is still a miracle, considering all that can go wrong in the nine months of pregnancy. But there have been huge leaps in medical technology, giving healthcare workers the ability to closely monitor the progress of an unborn child and mitigate the risks of complications. However, in rural parts of Africa, where under-trained midwives are the primary monitors of ...

Foodpanda, which also operates under affiliated brands Hellofood and Delivery Club, has raised US$60-million from Falcon Edge and Rocket Internet AG. The food delivery startup now plans to strengthen its presence on all the five continents it currently operates in.
In 2013, foodpanda secured more than US$20-million funding from Phenomen Ventures and Investment AB Kinnevik, and US$8-million from iMENA Holdings. Another US$20-million from a group of investors, including Phenomen Ventures, was collected in February 2014.
Since launching in 2012 the food ...

Looking super serious and full of criticism, Dragons' Den South Africa has revealed its five judges. Local entrepreneurs will have to pitch their business ideas to Polo Leteka Radebe, Lebo Gunguluza, Vusi Thembekwayo, Gil Oved and Vinny Lingham.
Popularised by the British namesake, and sponsored by Telkom Business the Dragons' Den TV show will start 23 September where participants will have the chance of getting funding or mentorship.
Radebe is CEO of business advisory group Identity Partners and Director of ...

Recently launched by industry veterans such as tech journalist and TV producer Elizabeth Gould, former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan, serial entrepreneur and engineer Dave Weber and Cara Turner, CodeX wants to bridge the gap for Africa's growing demand for coders.
"It’s critically important for our up-and-coming talent to learn what the industry demands, in real time," said Chairman Michael Jordaan. "The best way to do that is to build the curriculum in close collaboration with the people doing the ...

We have moved to a place in the business world where our customers are always looking for something different. In many industries, they have literally hundreds of choices of suppliers, all offering the same commodities at the same prices. How do you stand out as different and distinct in such a hard environment? What can you do to be unique – but without getting the financial director to start grumbling?
There are a number of choices, and they include …
Producing unique, ...

Project Isizwe seems to be raking up partners its grand mission to provide free information to low-income communities across South Africa. To help the startup achieve its vision, it will be partnering with one of South Africa's most popular online classifieds sites -- Gumtree.
A bit more than a week ago, Project Isizwe, boldly announced it will be rolling out more than 200 new hotspots across the City of Tshwane, South Africa.
The partnership between the eBay-owned site and Project Isizwe, ...

When the founders of the startup M4JAM (Money for Jam) secured a rare meeting with legendary banking innovator and investor, Michael Jordaan, he threw down a challenge to them. He encouraged them to stop the talk and build their product in 90 days. Just 105 days later, the company's new micro-jobbing platform is now set for launch, with more than 100 000 jobs lined up, supported by more than 10 brands.
M4JAM has lofty ambitions, aiming to solve one of South ...

Anyone who's attended a South African startup event in the past few years is all too aware of the fact that there's still a massive gender disparity in the space. A 2013 survey by the Silicon Cape initiative revealed that among tech startups, some 80% of people involved in the space are male.
That's slightly worrying given that, on the whole, female entrepreneurs are closing the gap on their male counterparts. According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, ...

Have an ingenious invention hidden in a lab or your garage? If so, listen up. The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) is currently looking for entries across the continent for the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2015. The fourth edition of this initiative seeks to encourage Africa's pioneers to present creative technologies and ideas that could solve some of the region's biggest problems.
In turn, the AIF will provide a sum of US$150 000 to selected innovators in order to support ...

After a heck of a long time spent in recruiting for large corporates, and then spending an almost equally hectic period in startups and smaller companies, I'm amazed at how people hire staff and look for new employees.
Why am I amazed? Well, to be sure, in a small company the recruitment of new skills is fundamentally key to success. Get the wrong programmer on board and your entire product line could come crashing down. Hire a bad salesman and you ...